A Thought Process

I can say with some honesty that I'm not sure how to approach the subject of how these poems write about violence and "feed the protest." The reason being that it feels both too easy to suggest what they're writing about is political and yet also too hard because there isn't just one things - it's all the things. And I use "political" here to pay homage to the idea that to simply exist Black, brown, poor, etc. is political and therefore any means of expression that you put out into the world will fall into that category of "feeding the protest". For example, I can write about the perceived violence I feel sending my son out into the world, even though really the world I'm speaking of is only public school. The response, from a room of like minded people would probably be, "You shouldn't have to feel like that. Let's do something about it." And in that moment of simply writing a poem about my parental anxieties, I have brought attention to a violence against my motherhood, a violence against his skin and have fed into the general idea that Black boys should be welcome in school, Black boys experience discrimination.

You see? How easy that is, by simply existing and expressing and experience how I've become political? All by the virtue of pointing out my circumstance.

This is a week I don't think I can be of any use because I feel like it's too easy to look at these poems and conclude "yep, they're gearing up for a protest" even if that's what I know to be true and sincerely believe. While at the same time, it's hard for me to look at these poems and pinpoint the exact moment the violence occurred: is it when Goodwin writes about his name being slain? when Smith screams "Dear White America" (although in the case of this poem the violence has occurred before and what we read is a reaction)? or when Carney writes about the mother who's gutted and hanged? It's all uncomfortably terrible and undeniably true. Fact of the matter is when I go through most of these poems all I read is violence, save for the one's about music...and in that instance everything becomes fuel in the fire, everything becomes pain, every word is a carefully crafted expression of protest.

I don't think I have much more to add to the conversation than that.